Using birch wood Firing Your Oven Discuss Using birch wood in the Oven Management forums; I use birch for overnight heating of the house. Up here its the only hardwood available except for poplar. In ...

[skemcis]

I use birch for overnight heating of the house. Up here its the only hardwood available except for poplar. In addition I use the birch bark for starting the fire under kindling in the WFO. Works great, smokes black like crazy. Now that winter is here, I plan on re-firing the oven after the bake is done and leave a good sized chunk of birch to smolder away untill the next use, about 24 hrs later. I'd like to keep the beast warm so that the thermal shock of -30 to plus 1000 f is not too great. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how the Pompei holds up over the winter.

[Neil2]

What is "birch" in Northern Canada may not be what is "birch" in Nevada. Local/regional names can be very misleading. For precision, try to use the scientific names.

I use "Pseudotsuga menziesii" also know locally as "Douglas Fir" (even though it is not even a "fir".)

[Spunkoid]

Originally Posted by Neil2

What is "birch" in Northern Canada may not be what is "birch" in Nevada. Local/regional names can be very misleading. For precision, try to use the scientific names.

I use "Pseudotsuga menziesii" also know locally as "Douglas Fir" (even though it is not even a "fir".)

I've got some access to Doug Fir but have not tried it yet. How do you find it compared to other softwoods such as pine...

[Neil2]

I use it because it is a good price and is easy to split. We don't have much pine here on the coast but if I remember my days growing up in Canmore, I would guess that your pine will burn very much like Douglas Fir, maybe a bit smokier.

Having said that, these things are not fussy. Any well seasoned firewood will do the job.

"All firewoods dried to the same moisture content contain approximately the same heat value per pound-from 8,000 to 9,500 BTU for fully dried wood and 5,500 to 8,500 BTU for air-seasoned wood."

By weight all woods, hardwoods and softwoods, are equal.

[Spunkoid]

Some species are denser which gives them more weight, so it takes less wood to get the same BTU output. Having said that, I can get a pretty hot fire in the oven just using pine with no problem. Tamerack or Larch is heavier and does put out much greater heat with less wood but the same can be expected with any of the denser hardwoods. Some species are a little more aromatic than others but they can all heat an oven.